Again I will say it: I've never had any particular affinity or loyalty or fanboyism for House Speaker John Boehner. My stance has always been that if Tea Partiers can replace him with one of theirs, more power to them. But that has always been the rub, as it were, as TPers don't know the first thing about taking down a sitting House Speaker, appearing to believe the same "right makes might" nonsense that they apply to budget confrontations with the Democrats. They're always disorganized, they're incapable of both finding a viable candidate and unifying behind them. This is why all these periodic "coup attempts" over the past nearly five years, every last one of them, have always failed hilariously. Any who wish to apply the perjorative "losers" to the Tea Party would, at least, not be inaccurate in that appellation.
Now that Boehner has finally wearied of herding cats, he's exposed that Tea Party operational incompetence for everybody to see and marvel at, and if it proves as overwhelming as it appears at this point, you could call it "Boehner's Revenge," as the days of his Speakership will start looking better and better by comparison:
House Republican turmoil is boiling over as leadership elections approach, with dissatisfied lawmakers casting about for new choices and a surprise longshot challenger emerging in the speaker's race.
Can you imagine the quantity of buttered popcorn and frosty beverages Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and James Clyburn are going through right now?
The upheaval reflects a caucus ever more divided in the week since House Speaker John Boehner stunned Capitol Hill by resigning under conservative pressure.
Um, no. Boehner did not "resign under conservative pressure". He went out on his own terms, and as if to say, "Okay, my Tea Party friends, you think you can do better? Here's your shot."
Like I said, "Boehner's Revenge".
And it comes as a long list of weighty and polarizing issues loom on Congress' agenda, including raising the federal borrowing limit to avoid a market-shattering default, and paying the bills to keep the government running.
Lotsa luck with that, TPers. Hope you have your magic wands oiled up and ready to wave like the devil.
Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah-3, the brash forty-eight-year-old chairman of the high-profile House oversight committee....
And who has a few sympathy/Obama persecution cards to play long about now.
....intends to challenge the prohibitive favorite for speaker, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California-23, Republican aides said Friday. Yet it's not clear that the hardliners who....view McCarthy with suspicion would flock to Chaffetz, given that as committee chairman he's enforced leadership initiatives such as punishing lawmakers who buck the party position.
IOW, they don't like McCarthy because he's "next in line," but Chaffetz isn't "pure" enough for their tastes, either. And the only one, apparently, who is.....
"It would be hard to replace John Boehner with someone who also kicks people off committees for their votes," sniped Representative Thomas Massie, R-KY4, who is backing another candidate, Representative Daniel Webster, R-FL10.
....is also a roaring joke and precisely the kind of bumbling malcontent that makes its so difficult to take Tea Partiers seriously.
That raises the prospect of more unrest — and potentially even more candidates — before votes for the new leadership team are cast October 8th.
Thus guaranteeing McCarthy's Speakership. And never forget that Kevin McCarthy is less conservative than John Boehner.
This Oklahoma Republican, at least, seems to "get it":
"Until we decide that we're going to function as a team instead of as a series of groups trying to enforce their agenda on the majority of the House, then we're going to have this treadmill kind of a thing where we're just walking faster and faster but not actually physically moving," said Representative Frank Lucas, R-OK3.
There's no entitlement to power and influence, my Tea Party friends, and no short cut to it, either. It must be earned. You must work within the system. And yes, you must play the political game to get where you want to go. You can tell yourselves that you "forced out Boehner" all you like, but you're going to be reminded in fairly short order of the Uhura Protocol: "Be careful what you wish for....you may get it." And "it" may not, after all, get you that which you were seeking.
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